Tenacity

“noun – 1) the quality of being tenacious, or of holding fast; persistence (the amazing tenacity of rumors); 2) the quality of retaining something (the tenacity of memory); 3) the quality or property of holding together firmly (testing the tenacity of the old book’s binding)” – Dictionary.com

The inspiration for today’s topic is two-fold. One is the weekly Monday Motivation from VA super-hero Regina Lewis from this morning, and the other is expounding on some character qualities I’ve discussed recently. These ideas merged in my head to form the overall theme of tenacity. The definition from dictionary.com is above. Like every good Sunday morning sermon, let’s look at 3 aspects of tenacity.

Belief – Regina touched on this in this morning’s session. What you believe is going to influence your actions. If you believe you will never lose weight, you will never lose weight. If you believe the rut you are stuck in is your destiny, you will stay in that rut. But if you believe you will reach your health goals, you are much more likely to reach them. If you believe you were meant for something greater than what you have now, you will be in a better position to get there. This can be a particular tough issue for people who work in administrative support roles, including Virtual Assistants, as a number of VAs spent part of their lives in admin roles in other companies. Many companies, especially the largest ones, take actions that send the message that the admins are of no value. The admins are paid the least, they have the least amount and selection of training options, and things that other employees are granted as a given are either forbidden or granted only after meeting extra requirements (example – many people in other roles can go to continuing education seminars and conferences whenever they choose, but an admin either is forbidden from such events or has to go through a lengthy approval process with multiple levels of management signing off and the admin having to prepare an arduous justification proof). This leaves many admins believing they are not valuable as their default mindset. It is very challenging to break through that, but you must if you are going to deploy the tenacity you need to meet your goals and achieve what you want to achieve.

Determination – This goes back to the stubborn streak I have that I talked about in recent posts. Being stubborn in and of itself is very unproductive and alienates people. When you channel it into determination, it can be very valuable. If some of those lies about being of no value creep into your head, you can be determined to go past them. If you make a mistake, you can use determination to make it right. You can use determination to continue doing the things you need to do even when you aren’t motivated to do them, like keeping the exercise routine or making the healthy choice for lunch or a snack.

Persistence – I am a Christian, and use the Bible as my standard for how I live. (Of course I fall short, especially when I’m in a debate, but I try to get better every day.) If you aren’t a Bible reader and aren’t familiar with the story of Job, let me give you a brief summary. Job was very wealthy and successful – he had 10 children, 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 donkeys, 500 groups of oxen, and a large staff of servants. He was also a very Godly man. One day, everything got wiped out – his children were slaughtered, fire destroyed his land, and thieves stole all his possessions. Then Job was stricken with disease. His own wife said, “Are you still holding on to your dignity? Curse God and die!” Job’s response was, “You are talking like a foolish woman. Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?” He was persistent in his belief that God would deliver him. By the end of the book of Job, his health and possessions had been restored so that he had more than he did before. He also had more children, and lived long enough to see great-grandchildren be born. I have made “Shall I accept good from God, and not trouble?” my go-to response for when anything goes wrong in my life or my business.

Tenacity is pretty much a requirement for entrepreneurs. There will always be up-and-down cycles in the process of building a business. You can use the belief in yourself and your vision, the determination to overcome obstacles and the persistence to keep building to create the tenacity you need.

Speaking of overcoming obstacles – if one of your obstacles is trying to get everything done you need to in a day, perhaps you need a partner to get things done. A Virtual Assistant can help you by taking on your administrative tasks, such as your content writing, so you can sharpen your focus on the things that will make your business grow. If you need a writer, Contact us to see how we can partner to make great things happen for your business.